Communication with God is essential. God wants to communicate with us. It was His design, from creation, that He and man have a relationship and communicate with each other. God is the perfect communicator. He never miscommunicates. If there is ever a problem hearing God, the fault is squarely on us and our sin nature. We are the ones who hear what we want to hear, or disregard the voice of God entirely. Jesus says, “He who has (spiritual) ears to hear, let him hear.” This is God’s desire for us: that we hear what He is speaking to us. To do that we need some surgical work done in our life so that we can properly hear God.

In Hebrews 4:12 it reads, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” This verse has a lot of hidden meaning in the original Greek. Much of its original description is based on surgical precision to remove, expose, and analyze our brain, bones, and heart. Throughout the New Testament we see that the word is likened to a sword. We are, as disciples of Christ, to wield this sword effectively. Jesus was the master of sword-wielding. Paul was a skilled swordsman, as well. Peter, well, he is easier to look at and draw examples of what most of us would do and have done with the word. So, let me give you 3 surgeries that will repair your hearing and help you to wield the sword more accurately.

Surgery #1: Brain Surgery

Mark 8:33 – “Get behind me Satan! You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.” Jesus just referred to Peter as Satan. He equated Peter’s human perspective to that of the guy who originated sin. The guy that introduced mankind to sin and its horrible effects on humanity. Why did He do that? Peter’s thoughts and intentions were not God’s. They were Peter’s. Jesus is looking for disciples who will accept and proclaim the mind of Christ. He is looking for our thoughts to be as close to His thoughts as possible. He wants our intentions to be His intentions. His intentions are holiness, purity, salvation, discipleship, Kingdom, etc.

What happens when you don’t get your way? Or when you don’t agree with other believers? What about when God doesn’t answer a prayer or do something on your time table? Where are your thoughts and intentions then? Do you see things from a human point of view? Or can you still accept God’s thoughts and intentions?

The word of God in this first surgery is like a surgeon taking his scalpel and light to shine into the dark crevices of your brain. He is searching for cancerous tumors that need to be removed before they spread. He is looking to remove man’s thoughts and put His in their place. (Note: He’s not looking to lobotomize you; He doesn’t want mindless robots. He wants to remove the doubt, unbelief, and error.)

So, are you seeing things from a human point of view today? Or from God’s? Let God remove the wrong thoughts and intentions today!

Pouring rain. ✅
Hail. ✅
Clean sheet. ✅
Man of the match. ✅
Proud of this young fella. Kept a clean sheet (no goals scored against him) for 3 games this weekend.
He got moved to goalie when the primary GK dislocated his finger after the first game.
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